Individual plans can be exported to iCal using the little iCal icon in the top right of the plan's permalink page. Your friends' entire schedule of plans can be exported by clicking the same link on the homepage (although this feature is a little bit wonky). Importing plans *from* iCal is something on our longer term roadmap.

1) We're rolling out better support this week actually -- hopefully as soon as tomorrow. The idea is that you can paste a link at the end of the What field, like youd put a link in a tweet, and we'll hyperlink it. Open to suggestions if you think there's a better way to handle links (we're hesitating to add a separate field for them).

2) We're mulling our de-duping strategy over. It's a non-trivial problem so it may take us a little while to get it right, but it's definitely important. We're also releasing basic search this week, so at least you'll be able to search by keyword to see all plans that are related.

Absolutely I'd be interested! I use PlanCast several times a week, and Duplicate events have been annoying. I imagine a super-user could either flag an event as a duplicate for an admin to check on or, better yet, could merge one event ID (URL) with another, which would then give a workflow asking you to choose which [LOCATION], [DESCRIPTION], and [DATE]/[TIME] fields to be used. Then, all attendees would be merged to one unified event.

Absolutely I'd be interested! I use PlanCast several times a week, and Duplicate events have been annoying. I imagine a super-user could either flag an event as a duplicate for an admin to check on or, better yet, could merge one event ID (URL) with another, which would then give a workflow asking you to choose which [LOCATION], [DESCRIPTION], and [DATE]/[TIME] fields to be used. Then, all attendees would be merged to one unified event.

I think it would be great to have an area based calendar so the events you see are not only by the people you follow but public or tagged events that happen in your area. For instance, I'm doing up an event calendar for London so people can keep abreast of activities going on in the area but I think by utilizing plancasts data to create this calendar it will be a) easier and b) more thorough. Will this ever be acheiveable through Plancast or will it always be dependent on who you follow? It would be great if you could click a button saying "Show in public calendar" and bigger events would be showcased there like meetups and conferences but not dinner plans with your friends.

Totally agree! We've had several people request this, and it's something we want to build. Not sure what the ETA is, but not terribly far off. The new search feature is just a primitive step towards helping our users surface info based on interest and geography.

a) that's an interesting idea. I can't promise we'll have it terribly soon, since integrating Twitter and Facebook is hairy as it is, but I'll keep it in mind for further down the road

b) We've already begun looking at importing from both sites. I imagine Linkedin would come first, and then perhaps something for FSq. The former is easier conceptually to integrate, the latter perhaps even more interesting.

It is cool to know who actually created the plan. Right now, we can only see those who joined the plan, but sometimes we also want to see who was the director of an event or the co-chair of a conference.

And I like how Robert Scoble had more subscriptions and subscribers than you do :)

Another one which might be useful: Embed a dynamic Google Maps like FourSquare instead of a static image will be so much more convenience, I would like to move to see the environment around or zoom in/out.

It's been mentioned, but a link to the event's website is critical. Currently, as I scroll through the events, I'm forced to perform multiple searches looking for accurate information about the event. The ease of being able to click on a link without performing a search and know that it's the correct link is the one glaring missing feature for me.

Right now, best way for people to share plans that have extra info is to drop a link at the end of the What field (like so: http://plancast.com/a/fjy ) We may or may not support an alternative way to add a link in the future (we dont want to overly complicate things)

+1. You're signaling an event on pc. My signaling my interest or intent is only the first action; I may want to dig deeper into the event or register. People are using comments now to solve this problem and it should be easier (if optional). Will become more useful as people starting importing events from private and public calendars and event directories.

+1. You're signaling an event on pc. My signaling my interest or intent is only the first action; I may want to dig deeper into the event or register. People are using comments now to solve this problem and it should be easier (if optional). Will become more useful as people starting importing events from private and public calendars and event directories.

+1. You're signaling an event on pc. My signaling my interest or intent is only the first action; I may want to dig deeper into the event or register. People are using comments now to solve this problem and it should be easier (if optional). Will become more useful as people starting importing events from private and public calendars and event directories.

Time sensitive announcements. For instance, I post an event on Plancast that's 6 months in advance, and the announcement is sent to Twitter/Facebook/etc. say 2 weeks (user option) before the event, instead of immediately. Does no one do this?

I subscribe to my own Plancast's iCal feed (auto-refresh), so adding things to Plancast is like adding them to my personal calendar. This works quite well. However, the data isn't as... er, semantic as it could be:

When viewing a Plancast event in iCal, the event title reads something like this: Galactic Concert at The Fillmore, Friday, March 5, 2010, 9:00-11:30pm (Sumeet Jain).

There is a lot of unnecessary/duplicated information in there. All I really want it to say is Galactic Concert. The date and time are already entered in the 'date' and 'time' fields in iCal. The location should be in the 'location' field. And I don't think the user's full name is needed in the title.

In the iCal export, my friends' plans show up in my calendar - even though I am not attending with them. I think far more people would use the calendar export to keep track of actual plans instead of potential ones; but if this is a split issue, it might be wise to offer both kinds of export.

Ability to show which people that i follow are attending an event. For instance the SXSW main event has 700+ people. Id like to see the people that i know (i.e. follow on plancast, twitter or facebook) that are going to the event.

In the Plancast Digest, it would be most helpful if you could also see the city in which the event was taking place. It's great to see "what" the event is, and "who" is going, but also I'd like to see "where is it?" :)

I'd like to see some sort of integration with google apps and gmail. Perhaps starting by creating a gadget that could be added to google calendar, gmail, and igoogle -- but later on, it'd be awesome if plancast released something in the google apps marketplace and also a plancast contextual gadget for gmail.

Off the top of my head I would like to see:
1. Widgets for events you can put on a website/blog
2. Additional event details
a. Website
b. Phone Number
c. Social Network Contact (Buzz, Twitter, Facebook, friendfeed)
3. Link to check-in on Foursquare, Yelp, Gowala

2. Additional event details -- we're contemplating adding optional "description" and "url" fields but haven't decided yet since we do want to keep things very simple. We might design the UI so you can attach these after you share the plan by providing a what, when and where. We probably won't add phone number as it's own separate field, since you could add that to the description (or did you mean you want to list that on your profile?). Same goes for social network contact.

3. Link to check-in -- we're mulling this one over actively right now, trying to figure out if and how it makes sense, and how technically we can pull it off. But we are getting lots of people asking us about it.

2. Additional event details -- we're contemplating adding optional "description" and "url" fields but haven't decided yet since we do want to keep things very simple. We might design the UI so you can attach these after you share the plan by providing a what, when and where. We probably won't add phone number as it's own separate field, since you could add that to the description (or did you mean you want to list that on your profile?). Same goes for social network contact.

3. Link to check-in -- we're mulling this one over actively right now, trying to figure out if and how it makes sense, and how technically we can pull it off. But we are getting lots of people asking us about it.

I'd like to be able to configure Plancast to automatically tweet and/or post to Facebook a reminder about my event at some customized period of time before it starts (say, a day before). Customization of date/time to send out reminder should be on a per-event basis.

also could we change what we see when we first log in? i would like to be able to first see just my plans rather than everyone's - i don't subscribe to notification emails so i'm keen to see who's coming to my stuff first up then i'd like to peruse the other plans of people i subscribe to...

i can't find anywhere in the iphone app unless i am blind to repost to twitter or facebook

the duplicate thing is a a bit of an issue... i added a plan in facebook so it came in as my plan.... i already had counted myself in to another guy who was organising the event on plancast so i eneded up having two.... get's a bit confusing so can't wait for a solution on that.

to be able to filter by town would be a good idea.... i like to see what others are up to overseas but that can make it very busy...

some services block users from using scripts, plus an image widget can be easily added on any page and link to the user's profile. If I am not wrong Myspace also doesn't accept scripts, Posterous accepts simple HTML in the description that makes it a small sidebar, and so on.

Both are good suggestions. We're working on UI improvements that should make it much easier to see what plans fall within certain timespans. Topics may take more work, as we don't actively tag or categorize plans and events right now.

When you mean check in at the events, do you mean count themselves in ahead of time or actually check in once the event starts?

1. invite friends to plans. i find it weird that i cannot actively invite a friend to a plan i've made - especially if it directly involves them. we both end up posting the same event, described differently, and then add each others' events to our own plancasts. quite clunky.
2. actually be able to synch with FB (that includes "maybe" events) - at one point my accounts were syncing, and then it stopped. i don't want to push events TO fb, i only want to import from there. this would also be nice to sync with gmail/entourage/ical..

Thanks for the feedback, Jeremiah. The good news is that we're coming up with a solution to address your first point, since we recognize it's a common need to tell particular friends about your plans, not just broadcast to everyone who's subscribed to you. Look for it in the coming weeks.

That's odd that your Facebook events aren't getting imported anymore. Just to verify, have you recently RSVPed as "attending" (not just "maybe") to any events on Facebook?

thanks for the quick feedback.. yes, i have RSVPed as "attending" a few times over the past few weeks and none of those events have synced. i have manually input them into my plancast to track them. i've also double checked that my FB and plancast emails match, that my FB account is correctly input, and so on. i wonder if the error is on the FB side, blocking any apps trying to access my data?

Hey Jeremiah, we fixed a pretty big bug earlier today that had to do with our Facebook integration. Can you try disconnecting then reconnecting to your Facebook account via settings ( http://plancast.com/settings/external... ) then hit the link that say manually import your Facebook events? I'm guessing it'll work now based on what I fixed.

Mark, the disconnect/reconnect thing worked. Before, when I'd look up friends, it'd say I was an early adopter. Now I can see a few pals on there. Now if only I could invite friends to plans, I'd be perfect! The email invite system seems really clunky for a site that integrates FB and twitter.

looks like the FB fix only repaired the issue of me not seeing friends who were also on FB. i've RSVP'd as "attending" to a few events and they are still not pulling down into my plancast. looks like i'll always be manually entering in all plans unless there's just a lag on this part of the service?

yessir. it did pull the events. only complication was trying to figure out which ones were manually entered and which ones were authorized through FB connect - under the assumption that if i deleted the FB authorized ones, they'd pull back down when the service refreshed.

Hi Mark,
Just started using Plancast and I'm feeling good about it but was surprised by how it behaved with automatic harvesting of attended facebook events and automatic posting to twitter.

I'd like to be able to configure my preferences so that, when I tell Facebook that I am attending an event, Plancast will automatically add that as a plan in my Plancast profile (as it already does) and then immediately and automatically post that plan to Twitter (doesn't currently do this).

Put another way and more generally, I'd like to be able to specify how Plancast automatically shares plans originating from sources other than me creating plans interactively through an interface such as the Plancast website or the iPhone app.

Hey David, thanks for the suggestion. This is a good idea and we should probably allow the option for it in one way or another. We want to be careful we don't surprise any existing users with Twitter syndication turned on, so we may have to think about the best way to introduce this. It could simply be a check box in settings that says "When importing Facebook events, share with my other connected networks automatically" or something. Does that sound about right?

Hey David, thanks for the suggestion. This is a good idea and we should probably allow the option for it in one way or another. We want to be careful we don't surprise any existing users with Twitter syndication turned on, so we may have to think about the best way to introduce this. It could simply be a check box in settings that says "When importing Facebook events, share with my other connected networks automatically" or something. Does that sound about right?

You're right, users would need to click through to see all of the details, but clicking through also means they are more likely to click "count me in" - and if they do, their faces will then appear on your site as well. Just something to keep in mind.

Also, you should check out this WordPress plugin created by a 3rd party developer (although it doesn't offer faces/descriptions). See here:http://exygy.com/plancast/

I would like to be able to still see past events. I went back to my Google Calendar looking for info on an event that I was to attend and it had been removed. The date was 9/4-9/6 and I was looking for it on 9/6 but it I couldn't find it.

Currently we don't show a link to past events. However, you can see them by going to your profile page and adding "/past" to the end of the URL. We should definitely show past events (especially if they're ongoing) through the calendar feed. Thanks for your feedback!

1) Ability to make an event repeat either at the same location and time each week or possibly a different location and time such as 3rd Sunday but varying location.

2) Be able to auto-populate the name of event, date, time and location (plus thumbnail graphic a plus) when you paste in an URL like this from a comprehensive site: http://www.localmusicvibe.com/event/a...

Note: yes, Local Music Vibe is my website... but I think that other event sites would benefit from having a short-cut to submitting events (since they already likely posted in other places)

Fields to enter the date and time, please...
So, there should be field to enter each date, month, year, hour and minutes for when the event start and end. Probably use combo box.
Current model (type and let the script guess the date you meant) is frustrating.

I’d like format like 2011-07-09 11:00 - 2011-07-10 22:00 got translated correctly. But asking for so is too selfish and everyone might have their own preferred way to write date/time.
I’d say throw away that script and use combo box for each values. That’s more foolproof.

It’s frustrating to input multiple day events with specific time. It also doesn’t work with all date format easily. In the end, either the information become faulty or the user might give up trying to add the information to Plancast altogether.